S.S.B. Crowns National Tertiary Debate Champion

The finals of the National Tertiary Debate sponsored by the Social Security Board were held today in Belize City. The final two teams, Independence Junior College and Ecumenical Junior College, debated on the topic “Be it resolved that Belize should submit its territorial differendum with Guatemala to the International Court of Justice”. The Independence team argued in the affirmative, while the Dangriga panel debated the negative position. At the end of the lively debate between the two teams, the defending champions Ecumenical Junior College argued their way to the winning title and Gold Cup. We spoke with S.S.B.’s Janice Eiley who told us more about the event.

Janice Eiley

Janice Eiley, Communications Officer, S.S.B.

“The purpose of it is to offer a platform for young persons to be able to have a voice; to be able to use topics that are generally surrounding topics in Belize both socially, economically, internationally; and be able to stand for something either affirmative or negative but be able to speak in regards to the topic.”

Reporter

“That topic; tell us why did S.S.B. chose that topic this year?”

Janice Eiley

“The topics are actually selected with the institution; it is not solely selected by S.S.B. The institution submits their topics and from there it is randomly selected.”

Andrea Polanco

“Talk to us about the two teams here; I believe first it was a process of elimination across the country and then today we have the two final teams today?”

Janice Eiley

“Yes. Ecumenical Junior College and Independence Junior College. Initially we started with eight institutions and they were put in a shuffle – they were raffled to be partnered in the preliminary phase; in the semi-final phase there was also a raffle and winners from the semi-final moved on to the final round.”

Reporter

“What do you hope students who participate in this debate would take home?”

Janice Eiley

“We will hope that they will take home a little knowledge on this topic today. It is a very important topic and it affects us all as Belizeans; but more so there are other forms for you to express yourself. There is a complete platform for you to stand up; you know how they have athletes and there a lot of ways of how we acknowledge our young people – this is another form of where we can acknowledge those who might potentially be our leaders to be able to speak with knowledge and education.”

Andrea Polanco

“Talk to us a little about just the level of debate that you have observed over the course of this round?”

Janice Eiley

“It is actually quite impressive. In this round it is on an issue of the ICJ which is a serious topic. So to see them come out and actually be knowledgeable on it – it is not just them talking out of the air. They do the research and actually come out feeling confident and you could see the level of confidence these students exude so it is amazing to see that from such a young set of people.”

Reporter

“Talk to us about the prizes?”

Janice Eiley

“The prizes we have are actually – we have some laptops that we will be giving away to the participants; we have a projector screen for the school; we have a stipend for the coaches. There is a gold cup so that is exciting. There is also an I-pad that will be given to the team that is not successful.”

Member of the winning team from Ecumenical Junior College Pearla Martinez won the prize for the most outstanding speaker.

Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.